Death penalty rejected for cop killer in Puerto Rico

4 jurors voted against capital punishment, sparing the life of Lashaun Casey

The Virginia Gazette

SAN JUAN — A Jamaican man was sentenced to life in prison for the murder of an undercover policeman in Puerto Rico after a jury rejected federal prosecutors' request to impose a death sentence.

Puerto Rico has not executed anyone since 1927, and it abolished the death penalty under the constitution it enacted in 1952. But because it is a U.S. territory, the death penalty can still be applied in capital cases brought under federal law.

On Thursday night, jurors failed to reach the unanimous verdict required to impose the death sentence, sparing the life of Lashaun Casey, 32. He was sentenced to life in prison without parole for the murder of undercover police officer Jesus Lizardi during a 2005 drug deal in the coastal town of Luquillo.